About being rude to tourists in Paris, it's kinda funny. I lived in Paris for 4 years as an adolescent, and since Paris is one of the world's most visited cities in the world, you get used to see tourists all the time.

I don't remember ever witnessing any of my friends being rude to tourists, nor having even ever heard of any such thing, so clearly it is the exception rather than the rule.

One thing, however, is that hardly one FR person in a million speaks any language other than FR. If you barge into a shop and starts waffling in EN (or Italian, Japanese, etc), you can be sure to get a blank stare.

Then again, I lived in USA for two years (Florida, near Tampa), and I never once encountered a shop where I could stroll in and start speaking FR without getting an equally blank stare by the shop staff.

Lastly, apart from tourists, there are many expats from various countries living in France, and Americans are particularly prolific; about 300,000 in FR, with more than half of them in Paris alone. Since Paris has a population of 2.7 million, this means one in 20 of Paris's population is an American citizen.

So... clearly, living in Paris if you're American can't be that much of an ordeal, regarless of the reluctance of the local FR ppl to converse in EN, lol.

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